fledge capable of flying, from Middle English flegge, from Old English -flycge; akin to Old High German flucki capable of flying,Old English flEogan to fly -- more at FLY

intransitive verb, of a young bird: to acquire the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity

Friday, November 23, 2007

2226 E 4 L B

I had a little homework assignment: A friend was voted by her illustrator peers to be included in an exhibit, which is housed at a terrific used--well, "used" is not really the correct word here. The owners are very particular about their selection. It's more "curated" than recycled. But I digress--terrific "curated" bookstore. And I thought I'd take a few photos of her work being exhibited for her.

This bookstore is in Long Beach. Long Beach is a town dominated in all things by the busiest seaport in this hemisphere. It is a town marked by granite-covered capitalism-induced office monoliths shadowing, not a single street over, working-class, gang-tagged pre-war bungalow neighborhoods. And the gang tags are good. No, boys and girls, street gangs are not good. No: Street gangs are bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. But they do keep the property values down. And that is good. It is good, because the lower lease rates allow for rare economic ecosystems of alternative consumerism to thrive. Wildflowers that grow between the cracks in the concrete. Anytime a halfway interesting store goes out of business in my neck of the woods, the location is quickly replaced by a day spa or a hair salon. Now, these are high-margin businesses, to be sure, but just how much hair do people have? How much maintenance can a face handle? I can walk for three blocks and get a different hair or skin treatment everyday for a month and still not be done. I simply do not want to be that beautiful!

East 4th Street appears to be a fragile, self-contained ecosystem. The vintage clothing seller buys from the vintage furniture seller, who buys from the used bookstore, who buys from the weirdo knick-knack place, who buys again from the vintage clothing seller. There is a real danger that if one of these independent entrepreneurs needs to step out of this tiny eclectic economic cycle--say, if the weirdo knick-knack lady purchases a fax machine at CostCo one week--that the whole system may collapse in on itself. Purely in the interests of conservation of eclectivism, I contributed to the economic activity of this street as best I could (Purely. Just an overwhelming sense of economic benevolence that caused this table to enter into my home. That's all. Really. Utter selflessness.). I bought two great books; one book on "Objects of Desire". I think I know now a thing or two about such things. Including said table. And how do you like my new impulse--I mean--end table? It goes great with my new books.

Across the street from the bookstore, someone wove this unfinished thought between the links of the chain link. I found this answer inside the bookstore.

6 comments:

Haha, with my business I might end up in one of those little self contained ecosystems - back to the good old days of trading: ribbon for patterns, patterns for fabric, fabric for paper, paper for books, books for kringels ;)) and I thought Racine was a french writer!

Thank you for your nice and encouraging words. All small-business-beginnings know days of euphoria followed by days of despair. I can always read your comment to keep my spirits up.

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There are four interdependent elements of flight: Lift, thrust, drag and weight. I will categorize each entry in this flight log/blog according to each of these elements of flight. Many things, for example, will end up in the Weight category. While Weight may seem the antithesis of flight, it is usually the things making up the weight--the passengers or payload--that are the reason for initiating flight. Therefore, no Weight, no flight. Thrust will be the things that inspire and propel me and, hopefully, us higher and farther. Drag will be the things that slow me and us down. And Lift will be those magic moments when we leave the earth and soar.

There is an art, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ~Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

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